arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Nuno Arala.
We use spectral theory and algebraic geometry to establish a higher-degree analogue of a Szemer\'edi--Trotter-type theorem over finite fields, with an application to polynomial expansion.
We count integral quaternion zeros of $\gamma_1^2 \pm \dots \pm \gamma_n^2$, giving an asymptotic when $n\ge 9$, and a likely near-optimal bound when $n=8$. To do so, we introduce a new, nonabelian delta symbol method, which is of independent interest. Our asymptotic at height $X$ takes the form $cX^{4n-8} + O(X^{3n+\varepsilon})$ for suitable $c \in \mathbb{C}$ and any $\varepsilon>0.$ We construct special subvarieties implying that, in general, $3n+\varepsilon$ can be at best improved to $3n-2.$
We establish expansion properties for suitably generic polynomials of degree $d$ in $d+1$ variables over finite fields. In particular, we show that if $P\in\mathbb{F}_q[x_1,\ldots,x_{d+1}]$ is a polynomial of degree $d$ coming from an explicit, Zariski dense set, and $X_1,\ldots,X_{d+1}\subseteq\mathbb{F}_q$ are suitably large, then $|P(X_1,\ldots,X_{d+1})|=q-O(1)$. Our methods rely on a higher-degree extension of a result of Vinh on point--line incidences over a finite field.
For a pair of quadratic forms with rational coefficients in at least $10$ variables, we prove an asymptotic formula for the number of common zeros under the assumption that the two forms determine a projective variety with exactly two (geometric) singular points defined over an imaginary quadratic field. This extends work of Browning and Munshi with the help of automorphic methods.
We show that if $h\in\mathbb{Z}[x]$ is a polynomial of degree $k$ such that the congruence $h(x)\equiv0\pmod{q}$ has a solution for every positive integer $q$, then any subset of $\{1,2,\ldots,N\}$ with no two distinct elements with difference of the form $h(n)$, with $n$ positive integer, has density at most $(\log N)^{-c\log\log\log N}$, for some constant $c$ that depends only on $k$. This improves on the best bound in the literature, due to Rice, and generalizes a recent result of Bloom and Maynard.
For a given elliptic curve $E$ defined over the rationals, we study the density of primes $p$ satisfying $\mathrm{gcd}(\#E(\mathbb{F}_p),p-1)=1$ and give a conjectural value for this density with strong heuristic evidence for most elliptic curves, in an appropriate sense.
We study the problem of existence of one-parameter, linear families of polynomials of degree n all of whose polynomials have Galois group A_n. The methods we use have a strong geometric flavour.